Liverpool open talks for Barcola with a 120 million euro offer, and PSG want a lot more

Liverpool have made a formal offer for Bradley Barcola and opened talks with Paris Saint-Germain. Whether the two clubs are close or nowhere near depends entirely on which reported valuation you believe, and the range is wide enough to be the whole story.

The bid, first reported on 26 July, is understood to be 105 million euros guaranteed plus 15 million in add-ons. PSG’s asking price is the contested part. L’Equipe has put it at 120 million euros, which would make Liverpool’s offer essentially the asking price. Ben Jacobs has reported 170 million. The Daily Mail’s figure of 140 million pounds sits near the top of that range. Liverpool’s position, briefed out fairly firmly, is that they are not paying the top number.

Why Barcola is available at all

Barcola is 23 and has two years left on a contract that runs to June 2028. He has declined to extend it, which is what put PSG here: sell now at a price of their choosing, or watch the leverage drain away over the next 12 months.

He scored 11 goals in 29 Ligue 1 appearances last season and finished as PSG’s leading scorer in the league as they won the title, which is an odd line to sit beside a player who wants out. The explanation reported in France is game time. Under Luis Enrique, in a squad that also won a second straight Champions League, he has been rotated more than a player of that output expects, and he told the club he wanted to leave.

Florian Plettenberg reported that talks were scheduled for Monday and that Barcola is open to the move. Fabrizio Romano has said the player is giving priority to Liverpool.

Liverpool have a hole and a deadline

Mohamed Salah left Anfield as a free agent at the end of last season and has spent the summer being linked with half of Europe and most of Turkey. Whatever Liverpool intend to do about their attack, they have to do it before 11pm on 1 September, and the market knows that.

They also know how this can go, because it has already happened to them once this window. Liverpool enquired about Maghnes Akliouche at Monaco and found PSG had got there first, with the player having agreed personal terms in Paris. Coming second in a French auction twice in one summer would be a bad look.

The argument for holding firm is straightforward. PSG are quoting a fee at the very top of the market on the back of a season with 11 league goals, for a player who has told them he wants to go. Liverpool have pointed to the 75 million pounds they were quoted for the same player last summer.

Where it probably lands

Nobody involved is behaving as though the deal is dead. PSG’s number looks designed to be negotiated down, Liverpool’s looks designed to be negotiated up, and the player has already picked a side, which is usually the detail that settles these things. What is not clear is whether Liverpool’s ceiling and PSG’s floor actually overlap.

If they do not, Liverpool will need another name quickly, and the list of wingers worth 100 million euros who are genuinely available in the last five weeks of a window is not a long one.

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